Pyongyang

A great novel can take implausible fact and turn it into entirely believable fiction. That's the genius of " The Orphan Master's Son . " Adam Johnson has taken the papier-mache creation that is North Korea and turned it into a real and riveting place that readers will find unforgettable. This is a novel worth getting excited about, one which more than delivers on its pre-publication buzz. The setting in remote North Korea is oddly more timely because of the recent death of Kim Jong Il , the "Dear Leader"...

BEIJING — Armed North Koreans are holding a Chinese fishing boat and its crew for ransom despite the protests of Chinese officials, the boat's owner said Monday. The boat's seizure — which occurred early this month but was revealed by Chinese officials only Sunday night — is the latest dust-up between North Korea and China, which Pyongyang has long relied on to prop up its economy and defend it from international censure efforts by the United States and others. The vessel's owner, Yu Xuejun, was not on board when the...

The now-defunct six-party talks in which the United States, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China participated focused almost exclusively on North Korea's nuclear weapons program. But with a struggle for succession underway in Pyongyang and some of the country's internal controls reportedly beginning to erode, it's time to rethink the near-exclusion of human rights from the U.S.-North Korean dialogue. The fear of raising human rights issues has been based largely on the belief that doing so would distract from efforts to disable North Korea's...

TOKYO — An adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ended a visit to North Korea on Friday but would not give details of his talks with leaders in Pyongyang. Isao Iijima's three-day visit came amid a slight easing of tension on the Korean Peninsula after weeks of threats from the North aimed at Washington, Seoul and Tokyo. Japan has not disclosed the purpose of Iijima's trip. "I had serious and long hours of talks (with North Korean officials) during my visit," Iijima told reporters after he...

Jay Lefkowitz was President George W. Bush's special envoy for North Korean human rights issues. Christian Whiton was deputy envoy and is the author of the forthcoming book " Smart Power: Between Diplomacy and War . " The Obama administration is revealing a dangerous naivete regarding North Korea. In response to its threat to attack the United States and its allies , senior administration officials outlined plans for a limited "response in kind. " It is hard to conceive of a more misplaced message to send to...

PYONGYANG, North Korea -- China's premier was given a gala welcome to Pyongyang on Sunday by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, bolstering indications that the North is preparing to rejoin talks over its nuclear weapons programs. Kim greeted Wen Jiabao personally at the city's airport, embracing him on a red carpet and standing beside him as a military band played their country's respective national anthems. Wen was then driven into the tightly controlled capital in an open-topped car as...

SEOUL — After North Korea on Friday rejected formal talks to resolve a standoff at a jointly operated border industrial complex, South Korea said it would call home its remaining workers from the facility, formally severing the last major connection between the two countries. South Korea's decision diminishes the already slim odds of the complex's survival and widens a divide between Seoul and Pyongyang that has grown during weeks of back-and-forth threats. The Kaesong Industrial...

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea delivered its most in-depth account yet of the case against a Korean-American sentenced to 15 years' hard labor, accusing him late Thursday of smuggling in inflammatory literature and trying to establish a base for anti-Pyongyang activities at a border city hotel. Still, the long list of allegations included no statement from Kenneth Bae, other than claims that he confessed and didn't want an attorney present during his sentencing last...

More than 60 years ago, Myung Ki Min fled south with his parents from North Korea, just before a new communist regime and a four-year war sealed it off from the world. Eventually, he immigrated to the United States and opened a delicatessen in Alexandria. But in all that time, he knew nothing about the fate of family members left behind. "My father's dying wish was for me to find my uncle," Min, 70, said Tuesday, speaking through an interpreter. Min said he has little...

PYONGYANG, North Korea — An American citizen sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for what Pyongyang has described as hostile acts against the state has started life at a "special prison," state media said Wednesday. Kenneth Bae entered the prison Tuesday, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a short dispatch, but no other new details were provided about the American arrested in November who Pyongyang accuses of trying to establish an anti-Pyongyang...

BEIJING — The top U.S. envoy on North Korea says China has indicated it will continue to implement sanctions against Pyongyang. The U.N. sanctions are intended to make North Korea abandon its nuclear programs. China is North Korea's economic lifeline. The envoy, Glyn Davies, was in Beijing on Wednesday for meetings with his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei, and other officials. He said they had "excellent and very useful" conversations on North Korea. He told reporters that...

PYONGYANG, North Korea — An American citizen sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for what Pyongyang has described as hostile acts against the state has started life at a "special prison," state media said Wednesday. Kenneth Bae entered the prison Tuesday, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a short dispatch, but no other new details were provided about the American arrested in November who Pyongyang accuses of trying to establish an anti-Pyongyang...

SEOUL, South Korea — The top U.S. envoy on North Korea is calling a Chinese bank's decision to close the accounts of Pyongyang's main foreign exchange bank a "very hopeful sign" in efforts to end the North's nuclear ambitions. Glyn Davies said Monday that it's not yet clear whether this signifies a real shift in Beijing. But he calls the development interesting. Davies meets Tuesday with South Korean officials and then heads for talks in China and Japan. ...

PYONGYANG, North Korea — A North Korean academic says an American sentenced to 15 years' hard labor has called his family and urged Washington to push for his amnesty. Ri Gyong Chol, section chief of the North Korean Academy of Social Sciences' Institution of Law, also told The Associated Press Sunday that Kenneth Bae informed his family on Friday that he couldn't appeal his April 30 sentence. Ri's information came from authorities in charge of Bae's case....

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has replaced its hard-line defense minister with a little-known army general, according to a state media report Monday, in what outside analysts call an attempt to install a younger figure meant to solidify leader Kim Jong Un's grip on the powerful military. Jang Jong Nam's appointment is the latest move since Kim succeeded his late father in late 2011 that observers see as a young leader trying to consolidate control. The...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. is slapping sanctions on a Taiwanese company and its general manager suspected of procuring and shipping hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment to North Korea that could be used for its weapons program. The Treasury Department announced designation Friday of Trans Multi Mechanics Co. Ltd. and Chang Wen-Fu for links to a Taiwanese man, Alex Tsai, arrested in Estonia last week. Tsai and his son, a U.S. resident, were charged in Chicago with seeking to...

UNITE D NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council took direct aim at North Korea's leadership Thursday with new sanctions targeting cash transfers and luxury items, punishing the reclusive regime for its latest nuclear test while evoking a fresh torrent of threats from the North Korean capital. The sanctions, drafted by the United States and China and approved unanimously, were adopted against a backdrop of apocalyptic rhetoric from Pyongyang, including a threat to launch a preemptive nuclear strike against...

BEIJING — The views posted on Chinese Internet sites about the diplomatic faceoff with longtime ally North Korea have been anything but diplomatic. "China should make a preemptive strike on North Korea instead of waiting until the war happens," said a person using the pseudonym Power Plant of Plug. Someone identified as Anti-Hurricane declared, "North Korea is an unfaithful wolf which will never be fully fed. " Yet another questioned China's fraternal relations with Pyongyang.

SEOUL, South Korea — Ahead of a nuclear-powered U.S. carrier's visit to South Korea, North Korea on Friday called this week's summit between the U.S. and South Korean presidents a prelude to war against Pyongyang. Yet it also said it was waiting "with patience" to see if Seoul changes its policies. The North described South Korean President Park Geun-hye's visit to Washington as a "despicable sycophantic trip to please her master. " The summit between the two allies is "a curtain-raiser to a...